“By the twitching of my hooves,” an energetic pink Filly with painfully straight mane and a manic smile recited, “Something wicked this way moves…”
“Thirteen,” Moth replied to her young ward with genuine concern, “Is there anything we need to know about?”
“It’s just my Shift sense…” The filly’s eye’s darted about the train car, “Somewhere on another train, the shit just went down.”
“When the shit goes down,” the massive Pale horse sitting across from the pair intoned gravely, “You better be ready, Pip.”
“They’re HEEeeerrrrreeeeee....” Thirteen singsonged with a smile.
“Jimmy Jack,” a white unicorn mare with a two toned blue mane and a music note on her flank spoke nervously as she approached the trio, “We need to talk.”
“I had hoped you were dead,” the pale horse spoke in a flat voice.
“I… deserve that…” The not-pony who called herself Legion Scratch replied. “Look, I don’t know for sure whatever happened between you and Charlie, or you and Alias…”
“So your seperate entities now,” Moth mused aloud, “Interesting. I’d wondered what had happened with that…”
“Stow it, both of you!” Deadlift scowled and poked the newcomer painfully in the chest with a massive hoove. “Let’s get one thing straight, I don’t know what to believe about you anymore, except for one thing… you were never uninfected and you were never immune! We kept you in isolation for 12 hours watching for any change! After it all went down, when you were leading us out, every one BUT you turned! One by one! And we thought you were immune to the pink step, but you weren’t, were you? You weren’t immune. You were a damned changeling plague royal the whole time, and you led us into situations where one by one, we would get infected so you could get inside our heads!”
“Wait… what do you mean? Infected?” Moth snapped to attention in sudden interest.
“Our world… there was an outbreak of Equestrian Magic… It turns humans into to ponies… and sometime into freaks.” Deadlift explained.
“Yes, my cousin explained the particulars of your situation… but I was given to understand you had been cured on your world, at least as much as possible, before you came to Equestria.” Moth leveled a thoughtful stare on the newcomer. “But you had no reason to cure someone you thought was uninfected… possibly immune…”
“And he disappeared into thin air before we could ever make it to the Center for Disease Control.” The pale horse nodded his massive head. “And when we met Noone here in this world, it never even occurred to us that they might be the same person. Not until after Train Wreck and the Circus. Train Wreck was him…””
“The Train Wreck was never one of us.” Legion smiled sadly. “Maybe he was better for it. He was never pushed into the mashed up ball of evil that Fetlock turned us into to.”
“Who is this ‘Fetlock’?” Moth’s voice turned cold.
“She’s a pony who steals human souls to create pony life,” when the mare spoke, her voice dripped with hate, “Me, Alias, Noone… we’re just one mistake that she tried to make go away away again and again across countless worlds. An eternity of watching the same pony refuse to learn, refuse to show compassion… all in one moment of time until we all forgot where we each began and where the others ended.”
“NO!” The pink filly suddenly vanished, only her menacing smile floating in the air, mere inches from the ivory unicorns snout, she spoke with an uncharacteristic gravity, without a hint a mirth in her voice. “You are NOT the victim, here! You are a monster! Me, my sisters, and the whole wide world are the victims! We’re just trying to get by in a world where you exist! You don’t get to be the victim, missy! Not now, and not ever, because you made too many victims, and that train is full and there’s no room for you anymore!”
“Thirteen,” Moth spoke in soothing tones, “Control yourself. She can help us to…”
“No, Aunt Moth!” Thirteen cried, “We don’t need her! I get it! There’s another monster that made her just like she made me and Diane! But I don’t get to stop being a monster! And. Neither. Does. She!”
“You’re Graveyard Shift, aren’t you? One of N’s brood, the assassin?” The mare aske absently. “I’m sorry, the details between our memories can become rather fuzzy at time you understand.”
“I am Pinkie Pie Number 13.” The near invisible changeling hissed. “Because I CHOSE that name! I am a super fun, and super cute little grub who is super great at cuddles and I know because my colt friend, Rock tells me so everytime we get to hang out! I am NOT Midnight Shift! My name is what *I* say you get to call me. And you should really leave now… because Aunt Moth can’t really stop me right now, and I think she knows it.”
“This is where Alias says you can find her,” The mare passed a slip of paper to Deadlift and turned to leave before replying reluctantly, “I’m sorry… for everything.”
“Thirteen,” Moth admonished as she watched the mare slip into the next train car, knowing they would have no hope of finding her again. “I understand your anger, you know that I do, but you have to learn to control your feelings.”
“No Pip,” Deadlift shook his heavy head, “The kid’s right. We’re none of us close enough to the good side of right. We don’t need her.”
“I just thought about what big sister Diane would say, about what Surprise would say.” The pink filly faded sadly back into existence. “We can’t control the monsters who come into our lives. The only monster we can control is the monster in the mirror, and we have to live with the decisions that monster makes. So we better make sure those are good decisions.”